Saturday 10 December 2011 18.46 EST
First published on Saturday 10 December 2011 18.46 EST

Olympia the stuff of dreams for DuJardin

A trip to the west London-based exhibition centre Olympia means many things to many people – for most of us it would probably mean an uncomfortable tube ride from Earl's Court – but at least one of the competitors in this week's London International Horse Show believes it is "a dream come true".

Charlotte DuJardin, likely to be part of a team that have a big hope of a medal at London 2012, is one of the rising stars of dressage and ends a momentous year with an appearance at a familiar event. "I love the show, and it's always been a dream of mine to appear there," she says. "I had three goals that I wanted to achieve this year: one was to be on a team with Carl [Hester, her mentor turned team-mate], and I've done that, one was to get to the Europeans and I've done that, and the third was to get to Olympia, and that's going to happen as well. It's a bit surreal that I'm going to be there. I've been before as a spectator and I've groomed for Carl as well, so I know what I'm going to be doing."

Few doubt that DuJardin, a member of Britain's victorious team at the European Championships, knows exactly what she is doing. And not only is she one of the youngest riders at Olympia (though Portugal's Luis Principe is nearly a decade her junior at 16) but her horse, Valegro, is the youngest of all. "He's doing brilliantly for such a young horse," she says. "I guess it shows his trainability and his character. He just loves performing."

Though the best dressage riders rarely enter World Cup events, the location has brought Britons out in force and DuJardin will be joined by two other members of the team that won in Rotterdam – Hester, also an individual silver medallist, and Laura Bechtolsheimer. They will compete on Tuesday (3pm-6.45pm) and Wednesday (8pm-10.45pm) with the conclusion, contested by the 15 best performers from the previous day, broadcast live on the BBC's red button service and on British Eurosport.

Olympia also hosts a leg of show-jumping's World Cup on 18 December, which has a stellar line-up including eight of the world's top 20 riders and all Britain's top 11, including the European team bronze medallists Nick Skelton, John Whitaker, Ben Maher and Guy Williams.

Dancing a Boyle

Those hoping the opening ceremony's artistic director, Danny Boyle, would ask his namesake Susan to provide the music to the event were disappointed by Wednesday's announcement that the dance duo Underworld would be doing the honours. Boyle has worked with Underworld on several occasions in the past, most pertinently on the National Theatre's Frankenstein in 2010. "I think, in many ways, Frankenstein was probably the dry run for this event," Karl Hyde, one half of Underworld, told billboard.com. "It was a steep learning curve for us: it was us scoring live action and the thing evolving and not being able to lock up to picture or be in any of that comfort zone." Underworld first shot to attention when Boyle's own breakthrough film, Trainspotting, prominently used their track Born Slippy. To which any Olympic weightlifter or gymnast would respond: "Just use talc, mate."